How to Be Happier

True happiness lives within. Money can’t buy it. Someone can’t give it to you. Happiness comes from your attitude about life and the way you live life.

It’s not always easy to be happy or find the happiness, and for some it takes dedicated practice. I’ve met very few people who couldn’t use at least a little more happiness in their lives.

Change Your Mindset

One place to start, is changing your mindset or the way you look at things. If you find yourself always seeing the negative or down-side of a situation and therefore evaluating the situation in that light, it’s going to be harder to find happiness. Other the other hand, if you can find the positive – the silver lining of a situation, then you are much more likely to maintain a happy spirit. This doesn’t mean that you never feel sadness or anger or pain, just that take those emotions for what they are and look at the whole picture instead of focusing on just the negative part.

You can practice, because indeed it takes practice, by using positive affirmations every day. An affirmation is a short positive statement that is true (or you want to be true). The process of repeating affirmations daily has a powerful effect on the subconscious mind. The best part is – you can start small and make a big difference in your attitude and mindset.

Practice Gratitude

Another path on the journey of happiness is practicing gratitude. There have been multiple studies on the effect that feeling gratitude has not only on your mood, but on your physical body (people who practice gratitude tend to make choices that lead to better health, like eating well and exercising). There are several gratitude journals on the market, and in my own Successful Life Planner, I have a place to record gratitude and reflections for the week.

I also spend my first few waking moments each morning thinking about someone whose presence in my life I am grateful for and why. It’s a delightful way to start to the day and has really helped me to be appreciative of what I have and not focus on what I think is lacking.

Practice Kindness

You’d think it could go without saying, but if you are kind to people – nice, friendly, amicable – you’ll be happier. Unfortunately, many have not gotten that memo. Kindness goes hand in hand with gratitude. So be kind to others and to yourself. Not sure how to proceed, then start out small by simply smiling at people.

Where to Go From Here: Happiness

So how does one go about practicing happiness? Here are some links to start your on your happiness journey. You may want to bookmark this page so you can come back to check out the other links!

More on Positive Affirmations

• Affirm the Positive. You know how you get all warm and fuzzy inside when someone compliments you? A nice feeling. Have you ever stopped to consider that you can tell yourself complimentary things about yourself as well? It’s okay. As a matter of fact – it is necessary for success… read more
• Begin the process of loving yourself by learning to use positive affirmations in your daily routine. There are two books in the series (so far!).

  The first book, Positive Affirmations, explains what affirmations are and their benefits, what obstacles you might face and how to overcome them, and how to know if positive affirmations are making a difference in your life. It’s available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle. Also available for other e-readers here.

  The second book is Positive Affirmations for Teachers, written specifically for those in education. Available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle).

  Upcoming titles include books for entrepreneurs, nurses, single parents, and college students. Read more about the series.

Practicing Gratitude

• Do you specifically know the types of events for situations that will trigger a stress reaction from you? Do you have techniques in play to help you get through those situations? Gratitude is one of the ways to help you get through some pretty tough times… read more

Practicing Kindness

• Sometimes we need a little reminders to not only practice kindness, but recognize kindness in the world around us. The Kindness Bracelet does that, plus the story of how these bracelets came to be is quite inspirational in and of itself… read more
• We’re often our own worse critics. Isn’t it about time we stop beating ourselves up and change our negative self-talk into positive encouragement?… read more
• I think that people are inherently kind. I also think that even though people are essentially kind they find it easy to squelch that impulse. And so sometimes we have to make ourselves be kind… read more

Articles on the web

• A myriad of small things that can contribute to our mood. Let’s take a look at three things: music, movies, and memories and discover what makes you happy… read more
• Expressing thanks may be one of the simplest ways to feel better. This article from the Harvard Health Publications (Harvard Medical School) detailing results of some recent studies on gratitude plus a list of ways to cultivate it… read more
• “There’s an old saying that if you’ve forgotten the language of gratitude, you’ll never be on speaking terms with happiness. It turns out this isn’t just a fluffy idea.” This article from the Huffington Post explains some of the science behind gratitude and includes three more ways to practice being thankful… read more

TED Talks

• The one thing all humans have in common is that each of us wants to be happy. Brother David Steindl-Rast, a monk and interfaith scholar suggests that happiness is born from gratitude rather than gratitude coming from happiness.